Özet:

Understanding and feeling the other have become one of the main pursuits and dead ends of social sciences.  The multidisciplinary conception of empathy is the ability of envisioning of what the other thinks and feels. Considering the fact that empathy emphasizes understanding of feelings and thoughts, Bauman gives also a strong emphasis on emotions.  This study evaluates the current literature of empathy within the context of Bauman's ideas. The themes of rationality, morality, us and them are evaluated in this context. Within the theme of rationality, Bauman's criticism of rationality evaluated depending on the fact that empathy has both cognitive and emotional aspects.  Similarly, the relation between empathy and rationality is formed with which the importance of knowledge and feeling are mentioned in understanding the other. In the theme of morality, Levinas' understanding of morality, which is the foundation of Bauman's morality, is used to analyse the possibility of understanding the other and its relation to altruism. Nowadays, empathy is seen as a source of helping the other and altruistic behavior. The discussions of empathy also underlies the importance of human beings' limitations of themselves to protect themselves from being negatively affected while they are trying to understand the other. This conception of altruism includes human beings' giving priority to the other before themselves. For the themes of we and the other, the scope of influence of grouping in social life for understanding the other, and what kind of relation might be between understanding of the other and being similar, close and different are the subjects that are emphasized.